Regime of the Colonels

The Regime of the Colonels was the military regime that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. The junta was brought about by a military coup on 21 April 1967, ostensibly in order to secure Greece against a communist takeover. They filled the government, administration, and military with their own supporters, who were ill-qualified to run the country. Administrative chaos was papered over by repression, censorship, and the violation fo human rights. The divisions of the junta were exposed in 1973, when the leader of the regime, Georgies Papadopoulos, was deposed in a coup of 1973 by Brigadier Dimitrios Ionanides. Harassed by international pressure and internal demonstrations, his attempt in 1974 to stir nationalist support in his attempt to overthrow Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus backfired, as this led directly to the Turkish invasion of the island and its subsequent division. The regime became untenable, forcing Ionanides to ask Constantine Karamanlis to supervise a return to democratic rule on 24 July 1974.